How Hard Is It To Just Make The Wheels on the Bus Go ‘Round!?

Short takeaway:
Generative AI looks magical from the outside. But the moment you try to make something real – even something as simple as making the wheels of a bus go ’round – you discover the bottlenecks, the gaps, and the deeply human work required to make anything usable. And that’s exactly why businesses need a smarter, more grounded approach to emerging tech.

1. The Myth: “AI will just do it for you”

\facepalm\**

Spend five minutes on LinkedIn and you’ll see endless posts about AI “replacing creativity”, “automating content”, or “making production effortless”.

But here’s the truth from someone who actually tested end‑to‑end generative music and video production.

As part of my Generative AI exploration project Kids’ Songs by Bright Storm I created several songs and videos, including Punch Buzz, inspired by childhood road trips playing Punch Buggy in the backseat. It’s a simple concept, playful and nostalgic. In theory, AI should make it effortless.

In reality? Even the simplest children’s songs require:

multiple model iterations
lyric alignment
manual timing fixes
audio clean‑up
visual consistency checks
narrative decisions
and a human sense of taste

Sure, AI can generate pieces. It cannot generate coherence.

The gap between “a model output” and “a finished asset” is where the real work lives.

2. The Reality: Bottlenecks everywhere!

My “Wheels on the Bus” metaphor came from exactly this experience while creating my Punch Buzz song and Short video. You ask AI to make the wheels go around – and suddenly you’re dealing with:

Inconsistent outputs: The same prompt gives me wildly different results. Great for exploration, terrible for production.
Fragmented tools: I’m jumping between audio models, video models, lyric generators, animation tools – all completely separate paid apps that don’t speak the same language.
Lack of continuity: Characters change. Voices shift. Visual styles drift. AI doesn’t remember my brand unless I force it to.
Manual stitching: I become the glue – aligning beats, fixing transitions, adjusting pacing, cleaning artefacts.
Quality ceilings: AI gets me close, but the last 20% – the part that makes something feel polished – is still very human.

None of this means AI is failing – the generative tools available nowadays are incredible! It just means AI is a collaborator, not a replacement.

3. Why Does This Matter for Business & Strategy?

Most organisations underestimate the operational side of AI. They imagine a future where teams simply “prompt” their way to finished products.

But my own exploration, producing Punch Buzz and the other Kids’ Songs, showed me something different:

AI introduces new workflows, not shortcuts.
It changes how work happens, not whether work happens.

AI requires structure.
Without asset libraries, naming conventions, and quality gates, AI becomes chaotic.

AI amplifies human strengths.
Clarity, taste, decision‑making, storytelling, strategy – these matter more, not less.

AI is only valuable when it’s integrated.
Not as a novelty, not as a one‑off experiment, but as part of a repeatable, scalable workflow.

This is exactly where consulting, strategy and human‑centred design become essential.

4. Practical Tips: How I Use Generative AI Wisely

Here’s what my real creative experimentation taught me – and what I recommend to any business exploring AI.

Build reusable asset libraries
I create stable elements I can reuse across projects:

characters
colour palettes
brand motifs
voice profiles
musical themes
visual styles

This reduces drift and increases consistency.

Design hybrid workflows
The workflow always begins with me.
Me spotting the need → Me framing the problem → Me initiating ideation → AI exploring possibilities → Me deciding the direction → AI producing variations → Me ensuring clarity, alignment and finalisation.
I treat AI as a partner, not a pipeline. It accelerates exploration, but human judgement anchors the process.

Document prompts and decisions
Your future self (or your team) will thank you.
Repeatability is the difference between experimentation and capability.

Expect to iterate
AI is probabilistic. I’m not “doing it wrong” – the system is designed to be unpredictable.

Focus on the outcome, not the tool

The question isn’t “Which model should I use?” It’s “What am I trying to achieve, and what’s the smartest way to get there?”

5. So… How hard is it to make the Wheels Go ‘Round?

Harder than people think – but also more exciting!

Because the difficulty is the opportunity.

Every bottleneck reveals:

where human judgment matters
where strategy is needed
where workflows must evolve
where businesses can differentiate
where creativity becomes a competitive advantage

Generative AI isn’t here to replace us.
It’s here to challenge us to work smarter, design better systems, and rethink how we create value.

And sometimes, it starts with a simple kids’ song – or a nostalgic road‑trip game turned into Punch Buzz.

Check out Punch Buzz and some of the other tunes by Kids’ Songs by Bright Storm: